All issues of the newsletter are also available on the
World Wide Web at http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/stated/newsletter/index.html,
and can be reached through the Statistical Education
Section home page as well. Two different versions are
available. The first version accesses each article as a
separate file. If a surfer chooses to print an article,
only that one article will appear on paper. The second
version is a continuous feed version. That is, if a surfer
chooses to print, then the entire newsletter will appear on
paper.

The Better File Cabinet
(http://betterfilecabinet.
com) is a free searchable database of references to
research in math and statistics education (nearly two
thousand as of May 2001). The MAA's Special Interest Group
collected the references on Research on Undergraduate Math
Education (SIGMAA on RUME) and references on Statistics
Education were collected by Joan Garfield. Using the web
interface, the references are searchable by author, title,
full text, and keywords and there is an ongoing effort to
add commentary on the papers.

The site is in a very usable state, but it is still a preliminary beta version. Consolidation and cleaning of the keywords is planned for the near future, as well as a number of other new features. There is also a sister database of calculus problems that will eventually be expanded to other topic areas and integrated into a database containing both research papers and other educational resources.

Anyone wishing to contribute time, references, ideas, or
resources to the project is encouraged to contact Eric Hsu
(erichsu@math.sfsu.edu).

Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 7, Number 2 (Spring 2001)

This is an open letter to anyone and everyone who has an interest in the wellbeing of statistics education, and announces the Mathematical Association of America's (MAA's) new Special Interest Group on Statistics Education, or 'SIGMAA on Stat Ed.' If you read this newsletter chances are that you are a statistician in a statistics or mathematics department. However, you could be a mathematician in a mathematics department who teaches a lot of statistics, or maybe has been 'born again,' and one of your primary interests is statistics education. You could be a high school teacher involved with the Advanced Placement test for Statistics. Whoever you are, I want to tell you about the SIGMAA on Stat Ed.

As many of you may know, some ten years ago in August of 1991, the Isolated Statisticians met for the first time at the Atlanta Joint Statistical Meetings (JSMs). The meeting was organized by the Statistics in the Liberal Arts Workshop (SLAW), and moderated by Jeff Witmer of Oberlin College (SLAW member). It was primarily for statisticians who were isolated from other statisticians by nature of their being the only, or one of two, statisticians in a mathematics department. Also in attendance were statisticians from statistics departments who were sympathetic to the difficulties of the isolated statistician's existence. The 'IsoStaters' have continued to meet at the JSMs, usually with 40 attendees discussing issues related to teaching statistics and to being an isolated statistician. Since then there have also been many regional conferences for isolated statisticians. The benefits reaped by the isolated statisticians at their annual and regional meetings were so positive that Tom Moore of Grinnell College (SLAW moderator) and Don van Osdol of the University of New Hampshire had an idea. Why not have a meeting of the mathematicians who teach a lot of statistics, or who are interested in statistics education, at the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMMs) in January of each year?

So, in the summer of 1997 that they asked me to organize and moderate such a meeting, and at the JMMs in Baltimore in January of 1998, the first Isolated Teachers of Statistics Meeting (ITSM) was held. Over 40 attendees discussed issues related to being the only, or one of very few, instructors in the department who cares about statistics education. The 'IsoTeaStaters' met again in January of 1999 at San Antonio.

At about this time the MAA was developing the concept of Special Interest Groups (their counterpart to an ASA Section). There were other interest groups meeting regularly at the JMMs as well. Involved with this task force was Allan Rossman of Dickinson College, Chair of the ASA/MAA Joint Committee on Undergraduate Statistics), and like myself, an IsoStater and IsoTeaStater. Before the January 2000 JMMs the concept of a SIGMAA became official, and Allan drafted a charter for a SIGMAA on Statistics Education. With the help of yours truly and my co-organizer for the January 2000 ITSM, Mary Sullivan of Rhode Island College, we 'slickened' it up and presented it to the IsoTeaStaters at the 2000 ITSM. At that meeting the IsoTeaStaters discussed whether we wanted to become a SIGMAA (and voted 'yes'), made suggestions to improve the draft charter, and in fact voted to dissolve upon acceptance of the charter for the SIGMAA on STAT Ed by the appropriate MAA committees.

Last June saw the end of the 'IsoTeaStat-ers' and the beginning of the official SIGMAA on Stat Ed. Over the fall, when MAA members were asked to renew, they had the option of joining two SIGMAAs. At the 2001 JMMs this January in New Orleans, at the inaugural SIGMAA on Stat Ed business meeting, I was happy to announce that we had 170 dues paying members! Also at the meeting we discussed outreach to groups such as the NCTM, AMATYC, the AMS, and all teachers of statistics in mathematics departments at the high school or college level. We discussed liaisons with the ASA's Stat Ed section and appropriate committees with the NCTM, AMATYC, CUPM, the IASE, and statistics educators in other disciplines. We bounced around ideas for our newsletter, our web page, and what we wanted for benefits. We even 're-elected' our charter slate of officers for 2001 (hey, we didn't really exist until we got money ... uh ... members). I am the Chair, Mary Sullivan is Chair Elect, Ginger Holmes Rowell of Middle Tennessee State University is Secretary, K.L.D. Gunawardena of U.W.-Oshkosh is Treasurer, and Allan Rossman is Past-Chair for the second year running! We have a Webmaster and three volunteers do edit the newsletter!

Of course we talked about a lot of 'big plans' at our inaugural meeting, and it will take time to get everything off of the ground. Yet we already have volunteers to liaison with AMATYC at their annual meeting, and with one of its very active regional 'sections.' Another person will try to organize a SIGMAA meeting at MathFest this summer (although he doesn't know it yet!). It also became clear how complicated it will be just assigning the various duties that the officers will have. However, as I look upon the upcoming year with excitement (and some trepidation!), I feel very positive about our future. To quote from our mission, I think that for many years to come the SIGMAA on Stat Ed will 'provide a forum through which those interested in statistics education can meet, interact, exchange ideas, provide support for each other, and foster increased awareness of statistics education.' Hey! If you are not a member of the MAA I invite you to join (remember, a huge percentage of all statistics courses are taught in mathematics departments). And if you are an MAA member, then joint the SIGMAA on Stat Ed today!

Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 7, Number 2 (Spring 2001)

The ISI (International Statistics Institute) established
a committee in 1994 to stimulate the spread of quantitative
skills around the world in areas and populations
(especially in developing countries and among the young)
that could benefit from increased knowledge of numbers and
their applications, with particular regard to statistics.
The committee was chaired by Prof. Luigi Biggeri (Italy).
Under his chairmanship some very concrete successes were
realized.

In 2000, it was decided that this Project would now come
under the umbrella of the IASE (International Association
for Statistical Education), an arm of the ISI. I have
agreed, as a major portion of my sabbatical year, to work
on the development of a working plan for the World Numeracy
Project. If time permits, I will also begin on the
implementation of this plan once the IASE officers and the
ISI Council approve it.

My first step in developing the World Numeracy Project
is to gather information from as many people as possible as
to what directions they want the World Numeracy Project to
take. In order to do this, I need anyone reading this
article to give me suggestions as to what tasks the World
Numeracy Project should undertake. Below does Professor
Biggeri chair a list of possible ideas that were given in
various reports from the ISI Committee? You may use this
list as a starting point for your thoughts. But, what is
also very important to me is to have people give me ideas
that are NOT on this list.

Assisting with the development of national and international training efforts in statistics

Assisting with the development of national and international training efforts in the teaching of statistics and numeracy.

Please send your ideas and comments to me by mail or
email at the addresses given at the beginning of this
article. If you wish to contact me by telephone or fax, my
telephone number is (507) 457-5589 and fax number is (507)
457-5376.

Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 7, Number 2 (Spring 2001)

The Journal of Statistics Education (JSE) began the new
millennium with a new editor and a new look on the World
Wide Web. I was appointed editor in January 2001,
succeeding the founding editor, Jackie Dietz, who had
served for eight years. Jackie deserves all the credit for
making JSE what it is today.

JSE has grown from publishing via email distribution in
1993 to a fully linked Web version in 2001. We installed a
new "look" to the Web site beginning with the May 2001
issue. We tried to make the site even easier to navigate
without compromising the appearance and quality of the
articles.

In August 2000 the American Statistical Association
(ASA) Board of Directors voted to make JSE free, as it was
when Jackie Dietz founded it in 1993. Although
subscription fees are no longer required to access JSE
articles, we have not lost the ability to automatically
maintain an email distribution list of subscribers. If you
would like to sign up at no cost to receive electronic
notices of new issues of JSE, please send me an email and I
will add you to our distribution list.

Another change in 2001 is the availability of banner and
button space for advertisements on the JSE Web site. The
ASA has been very supportive of JSE since it became an
official ASA journal, but it would be ideal if JSE could
become self sufficient through funds raised by
advertising. If you are interested in placing an ad on the
JSE Web site, please contact me or Claudine Donovan (claudine@amstat.org)
at ASA for more information.

We will publish at least two more issues in 2001. Parts
of the July issue are already installed on the JSE Web
site. The July issue will include articles by Dex
Whittinghill and Bob Hogg on "A Little Uniform Density With
Big Instructional Potential," by Robert Bordley on
"Teaching Decision Theory in Applied Statistics Courses,"
by Chris Malone and Chris Bilder on "Statistics Course Web
sites: Beyond syllabus.html," and more. The final regular
issue of 2001 will appear in November.

We also plan to publish a special issue in late 2001 or
early 2002 that will include articles from sessions at JSM
2001 and the 2000 AERA meeting. These articles will be
accompanied by discussions contributed by leading
statistics educators.

Thanks to the JSE Editorial Board, we are handling a
steady flow of submissions from all over the world. We can
always use more excellent articles, so please consider
writing an article relevant to statistics education and
sending it along to JSE.

Please continue to read JSE, to give feedback on what
you read, and to consider sharing your own ideas and
expertise with JSE by submitting an article.

The STAR Library is a new peer-reviewed Statistics
Teaching And Resource Library on the WWW (web address: http://www.starlibrary.net).
It was created to support and encourage statistics teachers
in their efforts to include hands-on activities in their
courses, and encourage those who have not yet tried using
activities, to do so. The focus at this point is the
introductory course(s) in undergraduate statistics,
although in time, we may expand our focus. All activities
on the STAR Library are freely available for use by
anyone. They are categorized according to topics on a
typical introductory statistics syllabus, and can be sorted
by amount of time needed, whether the activity is in/out of
class, and whether it requires a computer. Activities can
be downloaded and edited for easy customization, and can be
accompanied by a variety of technological supplements (e.g.
digital photos, video demonstrations, spreadsheets and
datasets).

Why was the STAR Library created? While most of us
agree that incorporating activities in the classroom is
important, there are many reasons why statistics teachers
don't use them as often as they would like to. Some of the
obstacles are logistic-how do we find high quality teaching
activities? While each of us has a few really great ideas,
there is little opportunity to share and exchange our ideas
with others, resulting in an easily exhausted repertoire.
Many commercial products are available such as workbooks
and CD-Rom, but not everyone has the financial means to
purchase these products. Even if we do, it is often hard
to adapt the activities in these commercial products to our
own situations, classes and teaching styles.

The STAR Library addresses these issues. Its mission is
to promote and encourage active learning in statistics
classrooms in a way that makes it easy for teachers to
participate. The four main objectives of the STAR Library
are to provide a collection of teaching activities for
statistics that is 1) of high quality; 2) easy to access;
3) free of charge; and 4) easy to customize.

STAR takes advantage of the accessibility of the WWW,
but also its wide range of available technologies. This
allows authors to demonstrate their activity without the
constraints of a regular print journal. Teachers not only
read the activity, and about the activity, but can then can
see digital photos, or video demonstrations of the activity
actually being carried out in a classroom. With regards to
video, the STAR Library has a Real server, which can stream
Real video files. (The editors will work with authors who
create videos in other formats.)

STAR Library also offers teachers a wide range of
materials and information beyond a description of the
activities themselves. For example, each activity has a
"prototype". This prototype is a "ready to print" handout
that can be given directly to students. If an educator
prefers to edit the prototype before handing it out, a Word
version of it can be downloaded. Any data, spreadsheets,
JAVA applets, or computer programs provided by the
activity's author are easily assessable and can be
downloaded by the user. Attached to each activity is a
message board that allows educators to discuss an
activity. Topics for discussion can include comments on
how the activity went in class, ideas for changes or
additions to the activity, or suggestions from authors
regarding how to use the activity. It is our hope that
these features will increase teachers' confidence and
comfort level with the activities and incorporate them into
their classrooms more often.

STAR Library has an editorial board; each activity is
refereed by at least two people for quality, purpose,
clarity, and attention to the format. The peer-reviewed
nature of STAR serves two purposes; first, it ensures the
quality of the activities, but equally important, it
provides a publication outlet for teachers that recognizes
teaching scholarship. And because STAR focuses solely on
activities rather than research, a high quality activity
can be as short as 1-3 pages long. A quick turnaround in
the electronic environment within which STAR operates is
also helpful for authors. The STAR Library will not have
"issues" like most journals. Instead, the STAR Library
will publish activities as soon as they are accepted in
order to provide a quick dissemination to educators.

Many statistics teachers (and perhaps many students)
have come to think activities are fun to do, but that they
don't really help move the class forward in terms of
learning the concepts to be covered in class (in other
words, they tend to take up too much time). A high quality
activity should integrate the statistical concept in a way
that makes class time productive; it should work with the
teacher to help students learn, not work against them,
competing for time. This really brings into play the
importance of learning objectives and assessment regarding
activities. The STAR Library pays great attention to
quality and completeness of activities, both from a student
and a teacher perspective. In addition to a "prototype" or
student version of each activity, there is a teacher
version of the activity, written as a brief paper, that
maintains a certain structural format. Each teacher version
includes an abstract, a clear objective, list of
materials/time needed, a description of the activity, a
paragraph on assessment, and teacher notes on what to
expect when carrying out the activity in your
classroom.

Another important feature of the STAR Library is what's
New? The What's New? webpage lists the activities recently
published in STAR Library. Educators can also sign up for
monthly emails, which describe what's new so that they do
not need to check the web page on their own. Other
important features of STAR Library include the Tour, which
gives a short tour of the website and help on how to use
it. The Chat Room web page provides a forum for future
scheduled chat sessions between educators, editors, and
authors to discuss statistics education. All of these web
pages are easily assessable from the STAR Library
navigation bar.

The grand opening issue of the STAR Library is currently
being posted on the STAR Library website. Some of the
activities you will find there include: "Counting Eights:
A First Activity in the Study and Interpretation of
Probability"; "Does Practice Really Make Perfect?" which
applies a matched pairs experiment to Frisbee and golf
distances; "Random Rendezvous" which examines probability
issues revolving around meeting a friend for a lunch
appointment; "Simulating Size and Power using a 10-sided
Die" which illustrates size and power issues through
simulation; "Breaking the Code - A Graphical Exploration
Using Bar Charts" which engages students in an encoding
activity, and an experiment to compare the absorbency of
two brands of paper towels ("Which Paper Towel is More
Absorbent?").

This grand opening issue of STAR Library is just the
beginning. To make it successful, we need more activities!
We hope you will consider submitting one of your favorite
activities for possible publication in the STAR Library for
all of us to share. To view the author guidelines, simply
go to the STAR Library website (http://www.starlibrary.net)
and click on "Submit." Videos, digital photos and other
supplements are encouraged but not required for
publication. Authors retain copyright of their published
articles; we only ask that you submit an original activity,
and that you not submit an activity that has already
received a copyright somewhere else without permission of
the publisher.

The STAR Library has been made possible through grants
and support from Duxbury Press, Oklahoma State University,
and Kansas State University. The Editor of STAR Library is
Deb Rumsey (rumsey@math.ohio-state.edu),
and the Chief Associate Editor and Webmaster is Christopher
Bilder (bilder@okstate.edu).
If you would like further information about STAR Library,
please feel free to contact either of us.